Two Men Plead Guilty to Conspiring To Support the FARC

WASHINGTON – Two South American men have pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide
material support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a
designated foreign terrorist organization, Assistant Attorney General Alice S.
Fisher of the Criminal Division and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L.
Wainstein of the National Security Division announced today.

Julio Cesar Lopez (Lopez), 62, of Caracas, Venezuela, and Luis Alfredo Daza
Morales (Daza), 47, of Bogota, Colombia, pleaded guilty yesterday in Miami
before U.S. District Judge Joan A. Lenard to conspiracy to provide material
support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

The men were arrested after working with U.S. government undercover informants
who, as part of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sting
operation, posed as FARC operatives seeking illicit travel to Miami to launder
FARC money from the United States to Colombia for the purchase of FARC weapons
and drugs.

Lopez admitted that between Nov. 10, 2005, and Jan. 3, 2006, he offered to act
as a financial advisor for the FARC. Lopez engineered schemes to launder up to
$1 million of FARC money per day through contributions to a charitable
organization and shell businesses in the United States. He also offered means
of obtaining weapons abroad in exchange for publicly-held stock shares bought in
the United States.

To demonstrate his ability to launder money effectively, Lopez facilitated a
$50,000 money transfer in Miami with cash payout in Bogota for the informants he
believed were working on behalf of the FARC. As part of the scheme, Lopez
directed an informant in the United States to deliver the bulk of the $50,000 to
his money courier in Miami and to make two $9,000 deposits into a private bank
account. Through a substitute debt-payment scheme involving international
businesses, Lopez arranged for that money, minus his commissions, to be made
available to the informant’s FARC associates in Colombia.

While Lopez developed schemes to launder FARC money, Daza admitted that between
Sept. 27, 2005, and Jan. 3, 2006, he conspired to help smuggle individuals he
believed to be FARC operatives to the United States by providing clandestine
passage through Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport. Claiming to be a
veteran of Colombia’s Department of Administrative Security (DAS), a Colombian
law enforcement agency, Daza sought to arrange an entire team of DAS airport
immigration officials to facilitate the travelers’ passage through the El Dorado
International Airport, a service he claimed to have provided in the past.

Daza also researched whether the travelers’ false passports or names had been
flagged by Interpol. He picked the informants’ travel dates and instructed them
on which immigration checkpoint to use and where to wait in the terminal in
order to avoid airport surveillance. Furthermore, he outlined a contingency
plan in the event the travelers were stopped by legitimate law enforcement
authorities on the way through the airport.

“These defendants admitted to helping persons, whom they thought were FARC
terrorists, enter the United States to engage in money laundering and terrorist
financing activities,” said Assistant Attorney General Fisher. “We remain
vigilant in our prosecution of such crimes, which make the citizens of both the
United States and Colombia more vulnerable to terrorism.”

"This case illustrates the sophisticated tactics that terrorist supporters will
use to garner U.S. resources to finance their terrorist causes,” said ICE
Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers. “ICE is proud to have worked so successfully
with the Department of Justice in this case to protect against the threat
presented by terrorist smuggling and terrorist financing.”

Lopez and Daza were among two of 10 individuals indicted by a Miami federal
grand jury on terrorism, alien smuggling, and money laundering charges on Jan.
3, 2006. Pursuant to U.S. provisional arrest warrants, Lopez and Daza were
arrested in February 2006 in Bogota and extradited to South Florida on July 22,
2007, and March 19, 2007, respectively. Trial for the remaining eight
defendants is scheduled to begin Jan. 22, 2008.

Lopez and Daza each face up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Sentencing before Judge Lenard is scheduled for Jan. 4, 2007.

The case was investigated by the Office of the ICE Attache in Bogota, Colombia.
Trial Attorney Brian Skaret of the Domestic Security Section of the Department
of Justice prosecuted the case. Valuable support was provided by attorneys
Thomas Black and Jerry McMillen of the Justice Department’s Office of
International Affairs, judicial attache in Colombia. The Justice Department’s
National Security Division provided assistance to the prosecution, and Assistant
U.S. Attorney William White of the Southern District of Florida served as local
counsel on the case.